ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.: Tricklock Company has announced that the organization will be closing its doors indefinitely, effective August 2020. A statement from the company includes the hope that this is not a permanent move, but that due to COVID-19-related hardships and the unfortunate timing of the industry shutdown, the future of the company is uncertain.
“If the shutdown/shelter-in-place orders had happened after our Revolutions Festival, it’s possible we could have weathered the intense challenge,” said a statement from the company, referring to the international theatre festival slated to run March 10-28 that was cut short by the pandemic spread and lockdown. “However, losing so much of our income by not being able to complete the festival while still paying out most of the expenses of the festival was just too much.”
Tricklock will also be closing its downtown space, T-Lab, at the end of the year. In the meantime, Tricklock will continue to finish up the few projects they have on tap (including Katie Farmin’s Package Play, which runs through Aug. 16), and will continue to raise funds to continue to pay off debts from the Revolutions Festival as well as to support future projects.
The company plans to take some time away and evaluate new possibilities in January 2021.
“If we come back, it will likely be as a reimagined smaller scale entity,” the company said in a collective statement. “We are dedicated to Revolutions and our education programs, the Manoa Project and the Dely Project. We’re hopeful that we will have some version of Revolutions in 2021.”
The company maintains its commitment to being “in creative service to radical change with radical love” while continuing to question the “patriarchal, product-over-process, and profit-over-people models” and examining new theatrical models from which to work and create change in the world.
“At the end of the day,” the statement continues, “we are artists and we will never stop creating. However, we need some solid ground to stand on while we do that. It feels irresponsible to attempt to carry on with so much damage to our budget. We need to stop and ground ourselves so that we can move forward with love and strength.”
